Lind turns into lone star when Jays travel to Texas

Adam Lind really enjoys Texas, and he puts up Texas-sized numbers when he plays in Arlington.

This year's visit came at the right time. Sure, he led the team with 12 RBI entering Tuesday's second game of a four-game series against the Rangers, but he also led the team with runners on base when he came to bat, 51, as the No. 4 hitter. Many times it was Jose Bautista, the No. 3 hitter, who was on base, as teams have preferred to pitch around him so they could face Lind.

If the Blue Jays were to be successful scoring runs, it was imperative that their cleanup hitter start clearing the bases when he came to bat, at least at a better rate than he had been.

He did just that in Tuesday's 10-3 win when he had two home runs (a three-run shot and a solo blast), a run-scoring single and five RBI. His single and one of his home runs came after Bautista walked.

"In the Tampa series, it was becoming more and more apparent that they weren't going to give (Bautista) much to hit," manager John Farrell said, "and the fact that (Lind) poses a threat sitting behind Jose is a huge boost for our offense."

In his past 12 games in Texas, Lind has nine homers and 22 RBI. He has five multi-homer games in his career, three of them two-homer games in Arlington. He had a career-high eight RBI there on Aug. 31, 2009, when one of his two homers was a grand slam.

"It's coincidence, I don't know," Lind said. "I remember my first two years, I didn't do anything here."

There are still two more games to go in the series that opens a tough 10-game trip. The Blue Jays would accept any more coincidences that come Lind's way.